(CNN) - Actor James Spader, while talking about his role as W.N. Bilbo in the new movie "Lincoln," said partisanship in American politics had a different look during the Civil War era.
"You not only were contending with people across the aisle, there was tremendous argument and discourse within your own party, which in a way I think felt even more democratic. Because argumentative discourse and eventual compromise is the best that a democracy can be," he said Friday on CNN's "Starting Point."